Swiss Chard and Lentil Soupapril 9, 2014

My French friend Laure, author of the blog Frog Mom, recently reminded me of this book when she served us a simple soup for dinner. Packed with nearly 200 recipes, there is always an appropriate option for something warm and comforting within its pages. Which I surely needed after swimming in the icy cold river at Hyde Park with her.

Another reason that I love this book is because it is arranged by month, so the ingredients are usually what I happen to have laying around the kitchen. In this case, chard. The soup is on p. 168. I doubled the amount of lentils to bulk things up and served it with bread and a grassy, vibrant cheddar (called Montgomery's) from Neal's Yard Dairy that I picked up at Cowgirl Creamery this morning, after lunch at il Cane Rosso with friends. Yum!

--- After dinner follow up:

Both parents enjoyed it, one kid gobbled it up and the other ate most of his soup when bribed with leftover peach crisp for dessert. The cheese was a one-sided hit as well. Raving about how I could taste the flavor of what the cows had been eating generated excitement for its grassy flavor.